Expanding leadership opportunities for Ontario Certified Teachers
December 01 2025
At a special meeting on November 20, 2025, College Council approved regulations that eliminate a longstanding barrier to leadership positions for Ontario Certified Teachers (OCTs) who are certified without an undergraduate degree. These changes will help expand the pool of qualified principals and vice-principals in Ontario’s publicly funded education system.
The regulations enable technological education, Indigenous ancestry, and Indigenous languages teachers who do not hold an undergraduate degree to pursue school leadership opportunities in the education system through an alternative pathway.
Today, those regulations were passed by the provincial government and they are now in effect.
The new regulations significantly expand access to leadership positions that were previously unavailable to otherwise qualified candidates.
What has changed?
Until now, the pathway to becoming a principal or vice-principal in the public education system is to complete the Principals Qualification Program (PQP) which has several pre-requisites including an undergraduate and initial teacher education degrees as well as other additional qualifications and/or Master courses.
The Teachers' Qualifications Regulation has been amended, removing the requirement for an undergraduate degree for entry into the PQP for technological education, Indigenous ancestry, and Indigenous languages teachers whose initial teacher education did not require an undergraduate degree. Additionally, an alternative pathway was developed for these teachers to meet the requirements for divisional and specialist qualifications. These teachers will also still need to complete an initial teacher education program and PQP.
Thank you to our education system partners
The alternative pathway was developed based on feedback received in focus groups with several education partners including the Council of Ontario Directors of Education (CODE), the Ontario Principals’ Council (OPC), the Catholic Principals’ Council of Ontario (CPCO), l’Association des directions et directions adjointes des écoles de langue française de l’Ontario (ADFO), First Nations, Métis, and Inuit educators, technology education teachers and the Ontario Council for Technology Education (OCTE).
These education partners helped to bring focus to the skills and competencies required to be an administrator in the current Ontario context. The new, alternative pathway sets out relevant courses for skill and knowledge development for those who bring lived experience from other domains. In this way, there is a comparable pathway for the development of more uniquely qualified and capable administrators.
“We are grateful to the government, Council, and all interest holders who lent us their time, knowledge and expertise while the regulations were being developed,” said Registrar and CEO Linda Lacroix, OCT/EAO. “This collaborative effort will help expand leadership opportunities for OCTs and increase the number of qualified leaders available for Ontario schools.”
